Echo vs Print

[Tony]

I'm just wondering why it seems most people use "echo" instead of "print". I
tend to use "print", probably because I started programming in BASIC back in
78, so it's just familiar.

Echo can take multiple expressions (as in "echo
$string1,$strin g2,$string3"), which apparently is a bit faster than multiple
concatenations. But for basic output, there doesn't seem to be a noticeable
difference. The speed test at http://dynacker.dotgeek.org/printvsecho/ shows
a "5%" difference in speed, but this amounts to a negligible difference in
actual execution time on a typical script.

So - why does one choose "echo" over "print", or vice-versa?

[james]

On Wed, 1 Jun 2005 15:11:34 -0700, "Tony" <so*****@somewh ere.not>
wrote:

I'm just wondering why it seems most people use "echo" instead of "print". I
tend to use "print", probably because I started programming in BASIC back in
78, so it's just familiar.

Echo can take multiple expressions (as in "echo
$string1,$stri ng2,$string3"), which apparently is a bit faster than multiple
concatenations . But for basic output, there doesn't seem to be a noticeable
difference. The speed test at http://dynacker.dotgeek.org/printvsecho/ shows
a "5%" difference in speed, but this amounts to a negligible difference in
actual execution time on a typical script.

So - why does one choose "echo" over "print", or vice-versa?

Hi Tony,

Heres a link about echo vs print:
http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/...l/aid/1/fid/40

I personally use echo because of all the other people that use it, the
documents i've read and the code i've studied. However, i really
don't use echo that much anymore, rather just escape php like so:

if ($blah == "blah") {
?>blah = "<?=$blah?> "<?
}

but thats messy, maybe i'm just lazy

[Andy Hassall]

On Wed, 1 Jun 2005 15:11:34 -0700, "Tony" <so*****@somewh ere.not> wrote:

I'm just wondering why it seems most people use "echo" instead of "print". I
tend to use "print", probably because I started programming in BASIC back in
78, so it's just familiar.

Echo can take multiple expressions (as in "echo
$string1,$stri ng2,$string3"), which apparently is a bit faster than multiple
concatenations . But for basic output, there doesn't seem to be a noticeable
difference. The speed test at http://dynacker.dotgeek.org/printvsecho/ shows
a "5%" difference in speed, but this amounts to a negligible difference in
actual execution time on a typical script.

So - why does one choose "echo" over "print", or vice-versa?

I use print, with the only reason being that I am quite fond of printf - so if
I change a line from print to printf I only need to add a character.

Possibly with a further reason that I use Perl a bit as well, which uses
'print'.

--
Andy Hassall / <an**@andyh.co. uk> / <http://www.andyh.co.uk >
<http://www.andyhsoftwa re.co.uk/space> Space: disk usage analysis tool

[james]

sorry for the top posting guys :S

[Jamie Meyers]

> So - why does one choose "echo" over "print", or vice-versa?

Here is a closer to real answer and explanation why the two calls are
different. As you know, PHP has functions, however some methods (read:
functions) which do not return anything. This is the essential different
between echo and print. In visual basic, it is the difference between a sub
and a function.

Print returns its success as a boolean. Echo on the other hand does not
return anything. This return call is the only difference I can think of off
hand. As for speed, returning a value does cost some cpu time but it is
usually a negligible amount. With that said, use whatever you feel like.
Personally, I use echo because it is faster, and I never check for any
return values on print statements. If you need to, say for important
information, then print should be used.

I hope this clears things up a bit.
Jamie

[Tony]

"james" <bl**@blah.co m> wrote in message
news:so******** *************** *********@fe02. buzzardnews.com ...

On Wed, 1 Jun 2005 15:11:34 -0700, "Tony" <so*****@somewh ere.not>
wrote:

I'm just wondering why it seems most people use "echo" instead of "print".
I
tend to use "print", probably because I started programming in BASIC back
in
78, so it's just familiar.

Echo can take multiple expressions (as in "echo
$string1,$str ing2,$string3") , which apparently is a bit faster than
multiple
concatenation s. But for basic output, there doesn't seem to be a
noticeable
difference. The speed test at http://dynacker.dotgeek.org/printvsecho/
shows
a "5%" difference in speed, but this amounts to a negligible difference in
actual execution time on a typical script.

So - why does one choose "echo" over "print", or vice-versa?
Hi Tony,

Heres a link about echo vs print:
http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/...l/aid/1/fid/40

Yeah - that's on the manual pages for both echo & print. Doesn't really show
a significant difference under normal usage. It does show that each is
better suited to certain specific functions.
I personally use echo because of all the other people that use it, the
documents i've read and the code i've studied. However, i really
don't use echo that much anymore, rather just escape php like so:

if ($blah == "blah") {
?>blah = "<?=$blah?> "<?
}

but thats messy, maybe i'm just lazy

[Tony]

"Jamie Meyers" <gt*****@mail.g atech.edu> wrote in message
news:d7******** **@news-int.gatech.edu. ..

So - why does one choose "echo" over "print", or vice-versa?

Here is a closer to real answer and explanation why the two calls are
different. As you know, PHP has functions, however some methods (read:
functions) which do not return anything. This is the essential different
between echo and print. In visual basic, it is the difference between a
sub and a function.

Print returns its success as a boolean. Echo on the other hand does not
return anything. This return call is the only difference I can think of
off hand. As for speed, returning a value does cost some cpu time but it
is usually a negligible amount. With that said, use whatever you feel
like. Personally, I use echo because it is faster, and I never check for
any return values on print statements. If you need to, say for important
information, then print should be used.

I hope this clears things up a bit.

No clarity needed - I'm clear on the differences. Just wondering why the
choices are made.

I don't see much speed gain - if you look at the numbers on the speed test,
they saved 4 milliseconds over 50,000 iterations. That's about 0.0001 ms per
iteration.

Granted, we don't know the speed of the CPU, but it would take a pretty big
page to even begin to show a noticeable speed difference. That's why I'll
probably stick with print for general usage - it's what I know...

[Jasper Bryant-Greene]

That's really slow (dropping in and out of parsing mode). Also you
shouldn't have short_tags enabled, it's bad for code compatibility. The
example you gave should be:

<?php
if($blah == 'blah') {
print("blah = \"$blah\"");
}
?>

Jasper

[Chung Leong]

At the end of the day, it just boils down to "echo" being easier to
type than "print." Just look at the layout of your keyboard. Typing
"echo" involves pressing [e] and [c] with your left hand, then [h] and
[o] with your right. Typing "print" involves pressing [p] with your
right hand, [r] with your left, [i] and [n] with your right, then [t]
with your left.

[dracolytch]

I use print, and ~almost~ exclusively with single quotes intead of
double-quotes. The primary reason is code legibility/mantianance. I
find that having the print statement look just like any other function
call provides some uniformity to the code. I also find that using
single quotes instead of double quotes requires me to separate
variables from string literals, making the statements more clear, and
potentially preventing bugs. I also really hate escaping typable
characters.

echo "My first name is $_POST['name_v'], and my last name is
$_POST['surname_v']";

(The following is correctly color-coded by editplus, allowing me to
easily see the variables and string literals)
print('My name is '. $_POST['name_v'] .', and my last name is '.
$_POST['surname_v']);
~D